Fire in Salt
A small piece of sodium metal is dropped into a flask containing chlorine gas. They react explosively. Electrons jump from sodium atoms to chlorine atoms, emitting heat and light that was hidden within the elements.
Image source: NileRed on YouTube, Making Table Salt…Used with permission
Salt and Exile–A Midrash
The ocean is salty and so are tears. A midrash provides a connection between them. Long before the Jewish people were forced into exile, the waters of earth experienced the same fate. It happened like this: On the second Creation Day G-d separated all the water in the universe into two parts. The “Upper Waters” [...]
Some Rambling Salty Facts
What is salt made of? Chemists call ordinary table salt “sodium chloride” because it’s made of two chemical elements: sodium and chlorine. That’s amazing because pure sodium is a metal and pure chlorine is a yellow-green gas. Sodium metal reacts explosively when dropped into water. Chlorine gas is poisonous, used in gas warfare. But put [...]
Salt of Sodom–A Toxic Mix
Sodom was an ancient city of organized cruelty. Its laws were meant to rob and kill indigent strangers who might wander into their midst. Any resident of Sodom caught giving a stranger food or shelter could be tortured to death in public. For this heartless cruelty the psalmist wrote “[G-d turns] a fruitful land into [...]